Apparatus, system and method for a lamination press

ABSTRACT

A lamination apparatus, system, and method. The apparatus, system and method are for a lamination press for laminating at least one laminating film to a subject, which may include: an upper press comprising a gel plate, an upper vacuum chamber, and tooling suitable to apply the laminating film; a lower press suitable to maintain the subject to receive the laminating film, and comprising a lower vacuum chamber, an air bearing stage, and servo-positioned tooling; and an aligner that applies the servo-positioned tooling to maintain positional balance and alignment of the subject by the air bearing stage during the laminating while enabling vertical flexure of the lower press, wherein the positional balance and alignment is substantially continuously monitored by a controller.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a Continuation application based on U.S.application Ser. No. 17/299,997, filed Jun. 4, 2021, entitled“Apparatus, System and Method for a Lamination Press,” which claimsbenefit of priority to International Application No. PCT/US2019/064541,filed Dec. 4, 2019, entitled “Apparatus, System and Method for aLamination Press,” which claims priority to U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 62/775,010, filed Dec. 4, 2018, entitled: “Apparatus, System andMethod for a Lamination Press,” the entirety of which is incorporatedherein by reference as if set forth in its entirety.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to lamination, and, more specifically, toan apparatus, system and method for a lamination press.

Description of the Background

Lamination is the technique of manufacturing a material in multiplelayers, so that the composite material achieves improved strength,stability, sound insulation, appearance or other advantageous propertiesfrom the use of the differing materials in multiple layers. A laminateis a permanently assembled product achieved using heat, pressure,vacuum, welding, or adhesives to perform the lamination.

Different lamination processes may thus be employed, depending on thetype of materials to be laminated. The materials used in laminates canbe the same or different, depending on the processes and the object tobe laminated. An example of the type of laminate using differentmaterials would be the application of a layer of laminating film on oneor both sides of a sheet of glass (the “laminated subject”).

For example, a lamination press, as the name implies, may use pressureor a vacuum (and may use other laminating techniques) to performlamination. Because the lamination of a laminate onto a laminatedsubject using pressure/vacuum requires substantial pressure/vacuum andhigh precision, it is generally the case that such a lamination pressrequires substantial electromechanical equipment to maintain level whileapplying the laminating film onto the laminated subject. As such,lamination presses are typically quite large, highly complex, and veryexpensive.

SUMMARY

A lamination apparatus, system, and method are disclosed. The apparatus,system and method are for a lamination press for laminating at least onelaminating film to a subject, which may include: an upper presscomprising a gel plate, an upper vacuum chamber, and tooling suitable toapply the laminating film; a lower press suitable to maintain thesubject to receive the laminating film, and comprising a lower vacuumchamber, an air bearing stage, and servo-positioned tooling; and analigner that applies the servo-positioned tooling to maintain positionalbalance and alignment of the subject by the air bearing stage during thelaminating while enabling vertical flexure of the lower press, whereinthe positional balance and alignment is substantially continuouslymonitored by a controller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosed non-limiting embodiments are discussed in relation to thedrawings appended hereto and forming part hereof, wherein like numeralsindicate like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of aspects of a lamination press;

FIG. 2 an isometric view of a lamination cell according to theembodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric view of a lamination press in accordancewith the embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary vision system;

FIG. 5 is an isometric view illustrating aspects of an upper press;

FIG. 6 is an isometric view illustrating aspects of a lower press;

FIG. 7 illustrate the use of a diaphragm flexure plate;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary control system operation; and

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary computing system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The figures and descriptions provided herein may have been simplified toillustrate aspects that are relevant for a clear understanding of theherein described apparatuses, systems, and methods, while eliminating,for the purpose of clarity, other aspects that may be found in typicalsimilar devices, systems, and methods. Those of ordinary skill may thusrecognize that other elements and/or operations may be desirable and/ornecessary to implement the devices, systems, and methods describedherein. But because such elements and operations are known in the art,and because they do not facilitate a better understanding of the presentdisclosure, for the sake of brevity a discussion of such elements andoperations may not be provided herein. However, the present disclosureis deemed to nevertheless include all such elements, variations, andmodifications to the described aspects that would be known to those ofordinary skill in the art.

Embodiments are provided throughout so that this disclosure issufficiently thorough and fully conveys the scope of the disclosedembodiments to those who are skilled in the art. Numerous specificdetails are set forth, such as examples of specific components, devices,and methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of thepresent disclosure. Nevertheless, it will be apparent to those skilledin the art that certain specific disclosed details need not be employed,and that embodiments may be embodied in different forms. As such, theembodiments should not be construed to limit the scope of thedisclosure. As referenced above, in some embodiments, well-knownprocesses, well-known device structures, and well-known technologies maynot be described in detail.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. For example, asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” may be intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “including,” and“having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of statedfeatures, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, butdo not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features,integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groupsthereof. The steps, processes, and operations described herein are notto be construed as necessarily requiring their respective performance inthe particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specificallyidentified as a preferred or required order of performance. It is alsoto be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed,in place of or in conjunction with the disclosed aspects.

When an element or layer is referred to as being “on”, “engaged to”,“connected to” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it may bedirectly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element orlayer, or intervening elements or layers may be present, unless clearlyindicated otherwise. In contrast, when an element is referred to asbeing “directly on,” “directly engaged to”, “directly connected to” or“directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be nointervening elements or layers present. Other words used to describe therelationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion(e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directlyadjacent,” etc.). Further, as used herein the term “and/or” includes anyand all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

Yet further, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be usedherein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/orsections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sectionsshould not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used todistinguish one element, component, region, layer or section fromanother element, component, region, layer or section. Terms such as“first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do notimply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus,a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed belowcould be termed a second element, component, region, layer or sectionwithout departing from the teachings of the embodiments.

Embodiments are directed to and include a lamination press, and, moreparticularly, particularly advantageous aspects for the lower pressportion of a lamination press. The embodiments may be used to laminate aplurality of surfaces, such as five surfaces or more, associated with alamination “train track” path.

A “train track” is herein used to refer to a family of curves embeddedon a surface, wherein the curves meet at a finite set of verticesreferred to as “switches”, and wherein, away from the switches, thecurves are smooth and do not touch one another. As lamination ofsurfaces necessitates the partitions of closed subsets of the surfacesinto unions of smooth curves, the lamination mapping of such surfaces isreferenced throughout as train track paths, and the junction vertices ofthose paths are referred to as switches.

The embodiments provide the aforementioned train track path for multiplelamination surfaces in an at least substantially precise and bubble freelamination. This is accomplished, in part, because the embodimentsadvantageously provide an accommodation for vertical flexure, such asusing an X-Y-theta plate, to provide torsional stiffness to the lowerlamination press, but compliance of the lower lamination press withrespect to pitch and roll.

As used herein, torsional stiffness is the torque per radian of twistfor a surface. Torsional rigidity is the resistance to such a torsional,twisting deformation. Compliance in roll is defined as a rotation aboutsolely a particular axis, and compliance in pitch includes a verticalcompliance of outer side edges.

The accommodation for vertical flexure of the lower press provided inthe embodiments improves the ability to laminate hard to hard, soft tohard, bent to bent, and like combinations of surfaces. Thereby, theembodiments may improve the ability to perform wet, dry, wax,solvent-based, solventless, and other types of lamination in relation toany receptive surface type or shape, or combination of surface types orshapes.

Moreover, the vertical accommodation provided in the embodiments allowsfor substantial improvements over the bulky designs of laminatingpresses in the known art. By way of example, because precisionelectromechanical control of theta-axis motion is unnecessary in thelower press in the embodiments, the entirety of the laminating pressprovided in the embodiments is smaller, less expensive, and suitable forfaster laminating operation than is the known art.

Accordingly, significant advantages are made available through the useof the disclosed embodiments. For example, what was a “floor to ceiling”laminating press in the known art may now comprise a “desktop”laminator. Needless to say, such a substantial decrease in size from theknown art, and the consequent minimization of mechanical complexity ofthe embodiments as compared to the known art, may substantially lowerthe cost of a laminating press in the disclosed embodiments, such as toa cost level of 1/10 or less of the cost of laminating presses in theknown art.

To accomplish the foregoing, and to thereby improve lamination qualitywhile decreasing press size and complexity, the planarity of the upperand lower press plates is critical. Accordingly, a servo-driven lowerpress includes X-Y-theta tooling to allow for optimal alignment of theupper and lower lamination plates. More particularly, upon loading ofthe upper and lower vacuum press plates, a vision system may comparealignment points between the upper and lower plates and the laminationproduct. The servo-driven lower press tooling may then compensate formisalignments based on the visual inspection prior to the bonding cycle.

Yet more specifically, the vacuum chamber of the lower press may befixed in three dimensions, while the internal tooling within the chamberis supported on an air bearing stage in the disclosed embodiments. Theair bearing stage may be coupled with the aforementioned servo-drivenX-Y-theta stage mounted below the stationary vacuum chamber, such asusing a diaphragm flexure plate as disclosed herein below. Such adiaphragm flexure plate may act as a universal joint with a movable Zaxis, tip, and tilt, along with providing zero lash or motion loss.

Thereby, the press load may be transmitted from the fixed upper toolingplate to the servo-driven lower tooling plate via the air bearing stage.That is, the air bearing stage may straddle the aforementioned X-Y-thetaservo drive mechanism, and the lower vacuum chamber may, in turn,straddle the air bearing stage. The lower plate tooling may thus beconnected to the X-Y-theta alignment stage by the free floating airbearing stage to which both are connectively straddled. As such, usingisolation of the X-Y-theta alignment stage from the press load, and bykeeping the foregoing outside the vacuum chamber, the complexity andcost of the servo driven stages in the embodiments are substantiallyreduced, as referenced above.

FIG. 1 illustrates a top view of an exemplary lamination cell 100. Theillustrated embodiment may include a vacuum pump 102, a flexiblesubstrate bonder 104, one or more vision robots 106, one or more movingcameras 108, a vacuum and press chamber 110, a base surface 112 toprovide substantially level press planarity, such as a granite base, oneor more fixed cameras 114, and a process conveyor 116 to move laminatedsubject/laminated product into and/or out of the lamination cell press100.

FIG. 2 illustrates an isometric view of a lamination cell 100 accordingto the embodiments. The illustration of FIG. 2 again includes upperpress tooling 202, lower press tooling 204, one or more fixed downcameras 114, a vision robot 106, and additional features known to theskilled artisan. In the illustration of FIG. 2 , a conveyed pallet 206stops at an aligner position 208. A laminate/subject may be picked fromthe pallet 206, and may be rotated by a substrate wrist 212 as and ifneeded.

Identifying information for the gel plate 210 and/or the laminatingfilm/subject may be read or captured and forwarded to control system1100 for use in lamination control algorithms 1190, and such identifyinginformation may be included in or include images, such as may be takenby the down cameras 114 or vision robots 106. Gel plate 210/laminatingfilm may be placed onto the upper press tooling 202 in accordance withthe identifying information, and the lamination subject may be placedinto the lower press tooling 204.

The lower press tooling aligner, as discussed further herein below, maythen move the laminated subject to a corrected position with respect toplanar, angular and three-dimensional position, as discussed throughout.Such a corrected position may be indicated by, for example, images,captured by the vision robot 106, of, among other aspects, the gel plate210 and/or the lamination subject, as referenced above.

FIG. 3 illustrates an isometric view of a press 100 in accordance withthe embodiments. The illustration includes top and lower vacuum chambers302, 304, as well as top and lower press tooling 202, 204. The topvacuum chamber 302 may move downward in order to seal, and the vacuumpump 102 discussed throughout may evacuate the press area. Uponalignment, the top press tooling 202 may press the gel plate 210 to thelamination subject 310 until a target force is achieved, following therealignment discussed throughout. Once the target force and time areachieved, the top press tooling 202 may release, and the vacuum 102 mayrelease, allowing the top vacuum chamber 302 to move upward in order toopen. The complete assembled product may then be picked from the alignerand placed back onto a pallet to depart the lamination press 100. Ofnote, the aligner 320 illustrated in FIG. 3 may include the air bearingstage discussed throughout, and/or may adjust the air bearing stagewithin the lower press.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary vision system 400 that may be used inthe embodiments. As shown, the vision system 400 may be and/or includethe vision robot 106 referenced above, and may include, within its fieldof view, the upper and lower aspects discussed throughout. Furtherincluded in the vision system 400 may be one or more lights 402, prisms404, lenses 406, and cameras 408, such as will be apparent to theskilled artisan, in order to allow the vision system 400 to perform thefunctionality discussed throughout. Moreover and as will be understoodin light of the discussion herein, the vision system 400/robot 106 maybe subjected to a camera driving control system 408 a, which may be partof master control system 1100, that moves the camera(s) 408/system 400to a plurality of positions in press 100 as necessary in order to gainvision suitable to allow for the alignment and lamination as discussedherein. Further, the disclosed vision system/robot 400/106 may move fromand to a safe zone and out of the work area during lamination processes,by way of non-limiting example.

FIG. 5 is an isometric view illustrating with particularity aspects ofan exemplary upper press 500. The upper press 500 may include, forexample, counterbalance springs 502, a vacuum chuck 504, edge gripcylinders 506, press cylinders 508, press bearings 510, an upper vacuumchamber 302, and vacuum chamber bearings and cylinders 512, all mountedwithin an upper press frame 520. Aspects of upper press 500 may beincluded in upper press tooling 202, discussed herein above.

More specifically, a gel plate may be placed onto the vacuum chuck 504,and the edge grip cylinders 506 may hold the gel plate 210. Thecounterbalance springs 502 may support the weight of the totality of theupper tooling, such as in case of a sudden pressure loss. The disclosedupper press 500 may perform the bonding of the assembled product usingpressure applied by the press cylinders 508.

FIG. 6 is an isometric view illustrating an exemplary embodiment of alower press 600 according to the disclosure. The lower press 600 mayinclude a vacuum chuck 602 having servo-positioned tooling 602 a asdiscussed herein. Further included may be one or more grip cylinders604, and an air bearing stage 610 having a plurality of air bearings 610a, such as may be cornered at four outer corners of the air bearingstage 610. Although the air bearing stage 610 may include four airbearings, it will be appreciated by the skilled artisan that fewer oradditional air bearings may be included without departing from thedisclosure. Also included may be an aligner robot 620, as discussedthroughout and suitable to align the air bearing stage 610; a lowervacuum chamber 304; and one or more heating elements 622, such as mayaid in the lamination process.

The air bearings 610 a may, by way of non-limiting example, “fly” at30-40 microns unloaded, which may decrease to, for example, 5 micronsfully loaded. This compliance (which may comprise, for example, 25-35microns) may be used as a planarity alignment methodology between thepress plates.

Further, the servo/servo-tooling 602 a may be subjected to one or moreservo regulators (not shown), which may enable configuration of the“fly” height of the air bearings 610 a during the press cycle. Theforegoing may increase the pitch and roll angle for the lower pressplaten, or may allow for additional air bearings (not shown) to bebrought on-line only as the press closes, by way of example.

Accordingly, the product may be placed onto the vacuum chuck 602 andgripped by the gripping cylinders 604. The press loading may bedecoupled in the embodiments, thereby allowing for use of the alignerrobot 620 to align the air bearings 610 a in a simple, low-profilealignment system. This alignment system may be subject to the X-Y-thetacontrol discussed throughout, such as may form part of a mastercontroller system 1100, such as may be in communication with the visioncontrol system 400 discussed above.

FIGS. 7 a and 7 b illustrate the use of a diaphragm flexure plate 700 toallow for the planarity adjustments discussed throughout, as isreferenced herein above. As shown, an aspect of the flexure plate 700may be located between the lower vacuum chamber 304 and the lower presstooling 204. The flexure plate 700 may allow for only limited motion ingaining planarity of the product on the lower press. By way ofnon-limiting example, the flexure plate 700 may allow for motion only inthe Z axis and in the roll rotation.

To further ensure proper limitations on available motion in theplanarity adjustments, the embodiments may include a spherical lock 704a, as illustrated in FIG. 7 b . The spherical lock 704 a may serve toprevent rotation of the tooling in a given axis, such as in the Z axis.The lock may additionally include any required bearings 704, cylinders704 b, and the like.

This lockable spherical joint 704 a may be suitable to enhance alignmentof the lamination press plates. More particularly, the locking joint 704a may be free to perform certain motions, but not others, such asproviding freedom in pitch and roll, but fixation in yaw. The lock 704 amay, for example, be releasable during the press cycle, such as to allowfor an alignment once contact and adhesion occur, such as to compensatefor otherwise uneven press loads. This spherical lock 704 a, such as inconjunction with the flexure diaphragm plate 700, discussed herein, mayprovide a Z axis joint for planarity adjustments in the embodiments.

In the foregoing discussion, suitable hardware known to the skilledartisan may be used to accomplish the embodiments. For example, thealigner robot 620 may include three orthogonal servo motors, such asYaskawa® servo motors, wherein the servo motors may include rotaryencoders, such as to allow for automated assessment of motor positionand performance, such as by the controller system discussed throughout.

Further, it will be appreciated that the vacuum chambers provided in theembodiments may require seals to maintain vacuum. By way of example, aseal may be placed at the bottom of the disclosed air bearing stage 610,and accordingly, the stage may ride on this sealing surface. Flexibilityin the seal allows for maintenance of the seal under the roll and pitchadjustments that may occur to the lower press pursuant to actuation ofthe air bearing stage by the aligner robot, as discussed throughout.

Additionally and as referenced throughout, one or more controllersystems 1100 may be provided. As illustrated in FIG. 8 , suchcontrollers 1100 may include open loop 1190 a and/or closed loop 1190 balgorithms, such as may be based on the variables monitored and thecontrols to be executed. As illustrated in FIG. 8 and by way of example,in a closed loop control embodiment, the controlled system 1202 mayultimately be controlled by one or more elements 1204 within the system.A measuring device 1206, such as a sensor, may measure that particularelement, and may provide this measurement to a comparator 1208 that maycompare the measurement 1206 of the element 1204 to a reference point1210 for that element 1204, such as given an application's specificinformation regarding the optimal characteristics of that element 1204.In addition, relevant readings, such as stemming from other sensors, ofother elements, such as the vision system discussed throughout, may beprovided to the comparator 1208 to calculate a needed adjustment. Once adeviation from acceptable characteristics is assessed by the controller1100, a modification control signal may be output, thereby modifying theperformance of the controlled element 1204, and accordingly, of thecontrolled system 1202.

FIG. 9 depicts an exemplary computing system 1100 for use as thecontroller 1100 in association with the herein described systems andmethods. Computing system 1100 is capable of executing software, such asan operating system (OS) and/or the one or more controlapplications/algorithms 1190 discussed herein throughout.

The operation of exemplary computing system 1100 is controlled primarilyby computer readable instructions, such as instructions stored in acomputer readable storage medium, such as hard disk drive (HDD) 1115,optical disk (not shown) such as a CD or DVD, solid state drive (notshown) such as a USB “thumb drive,” or the like. Such instructions maybe executed within central processing unit (CPU) 1110 to cause computingsystem 1100 to perform the operations discussed throughout. In manyknown computer servers, workstations, personal computers, and the like,CPU 1110 is implemented in an integrated circuit called a processor.

It is appreciated that, although exemplary computing system 1100 isshown to comprise a single CPU 1110, such description is merelyillustrative, as computing system 1100 may comprise a plurality of CPUs1110. Additionally, computing system 1100 may exploit the resources ofremote CPUs (not shown), for example, through communications network1170 or some other data communications means.

In operation, CPU 1110 fetches, decodes, and executes instructions froma computer readable storage medium, such as HDD 1115. Such instructionsmay be included in software such as an operating system (OS), executableprograms, and the like. Information, such as computer instructions andother computer readable data, is transferred between components ofcomputing system 1100 via the system's main data-transfer path. The maindata-transfer path may use a system bus architecture 1105, althoughother computer architectures (not shown) can be used, such asarchitectures using serializers and deserializers and crossbar switchesto communicate data between devices over serial communication paths.System bus 1105 may include data lines for sending data, address linesfor sending addresses, and control lines for sending interrupts and foroperating the system bus. Some busses provide bus arbitration thatregulates access to the bus by extension cards, controllers, and CPU1110.

Memory devices coupled to system bus 1105 may include random accessmemory (RAM) 1125 and/or read only memory (ROM) 1130. Such memoriesinclude circuitry that allows information to be stored and retrieved.ROMs 1130 generally contain stored data that cannot be modified. Datastored in RAM 1125 can be read or changed by CPU 1110 or other hardwaredevices. Access to RAM 1125 and/or ROM 1130 may be controlled by memorycontroller 1120. Memory controller 1120 may provide an addresstranslation function that translates virtual addresses into physicaladdresses as instructions are executed. Memory controller 1120 may alsoprovide a memory protection function that isolates processes within thesystem and isolates system processes from user processes. Thus, aprogram running in user mode may normally access only memory mapped byits own process virtual address space; in such instances, the programcannot access memory within another process' virtual address spaceunless memory sharing between the processes has been set up.

In addition, computing system 1100 may contain peripheral communicationsbus 135, which is responsible for communicating instructions from CPU1110 to, and/or receiving data from, peripherals, such as peripherals1140, 1145, and 1150, which may include printers, keyboards, and/or thesensors, encoders, and the like discussed herein throughout. An exampleof a peripheral bus is the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus.

Display 1160, which is controlled by display controller 1155, may beused to display visual output and/or presentation generated by or at therequest of computing system 1100, responsive to operation of theaforementioned computing program. Such visual output may include text,graphics, animated graphics, and/or video, for example. Display 1160 maybe implemented with a CRT-based video display, an LCD or LED-baseddisplay, a gas plasma-based flat-panel display, a touch-panel display,or the like. Display controller 1155 includes electronic componentsrequired to generate a video signal that is sent to display 1160.

Further, computing system 1100 may contain network adapter 1165 whichmay be used to couple computing system 1100 to external communicationnetwork 1170, which may include or provide access to the Internet, anintranet, an extranet, or the like. Communications network 1170 mayprovide user access for computing system 1100 with means ofcommunicating and transferring software and information electronically.Additionally, communications network 1170 may provide for distributedprocessing, which involves several computers and the sharing ofworkloads or cooperative efforts in performing a task. It is appreciatedthat the network connections shown are exemplary and other means ofestablishing communications links between computing system 1100 andremote users may be used.

Network adaptor 1165 may communicate to and from network 1170 using anyavailable wired or wireless technologies. Such technologies may include,by way of non-limiting example, cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, infrared, orthe like.

It is appreciated that exemplary computing system 1100 is merelyillustrative of a computing environment in which the herein describedsystems and methods may operate, and does not limit the implementationof the herein described systems and methods in computing environmentshaving differing components and configurations. That is to say, theconcepts described herein may be implemented in various computingenvironments using various components and configurations.

In the foregoing detailed description, it may be that various featuresare grouped together in individual embodiments for the purpose ofbrevity in the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to beinterpreted as reflecting an intention that any subsequently claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited.

Further, the descriptions of the disclosure are provided to enable anyperson skilled in the art to make or use the disclosed embodiments.Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent tothose skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein maybe applied to other variations without departing from the spirit orscope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to belimited to the examples and designs described herein, but rather is tobe accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A lamination apparatus for laminating at leastone laminating film to a subject, comprising: an upper press comprisinga gel plate, an upper vacuum chamber, and tooling suitable to apply thelaminating film; a lower press suitable to maintain the subject toreceive the laminating film, and comprising a lower vacuum chamber, anair bearing stage, and servo-positioned tooling; and an aligner thatapplies the servo-positioned tooling to maintain positional balance andalignment of the subject by the air bearing stage during the laminatingwhile enabling vertical flexure of the lower press, wherein thepositional balance and alignment is substantially continuously monitoredby a controller.
 2. The lamination apparatus of claim 1, wherein the airbearing stage comprises four air bearings.
 3. The lamination apparatusof claim 2, wherein the four air bearings are at four corners of the airbearing stage.
 4. The lamination apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lowerpress further comprises one or more heating elements to enhance thelaminating.
 5. The lamination apparatus of claim 1, wherein thecontroller receives monitoring data from at least one vision system. 6.The lamination apparatus of claim 5, wherein the vision system comprisesat least one stationary camera and a vision robot.
 7. The laminationapparatus of claim 6, wherein the controller monitors by moving thevision robot to view a plurality of positions indicative of thealignment and the balance.
 8. The lamination apparatus of claim 6,wherein the controller moves the vision robot to and from a safe zoneoutside of an area of the laminating.
 9. The lamination apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the air bearing is capable of re-positioning only inX-Y-theta axes.
 10. The lamination apparatus of claim 1, wherein thelaminating comprises at least one seal of the upper and lower vacuumchambers.
 11. The lamination apparatus of claim 10, wherein the at leastone seal comprises a seal on a lower aspect of the air bearing stage.12. The lamination apparatus of claim 11, wherein the lower aspect sealholds against the vertical flexure.
 13. The lamination apparatus ofclaim 1, wherein the aligner further comprises a diaphragm flexure platecapable of providing variable planarity.
 14. The lamination apparatus ofclaim 13, wherein the diaphragm flexure plate is between the lowervacuum chamber and the lower press tooling.
 15. The lamination apparatusof claim 13, wherein the variable planarity is solely in the z-axis anda roll rotation.
 16. The lamination apparatus of claim 13, wherein thealigner further comprises a spherical lock.
 17. The lamination apparatusof claim 16, wherein the spherical lock prevents rotation of the lowertooling in a given axis.
 18. The lamination apparatus of claim 1,wherein the servo positioned tooling comprises a plurality of orthogonalservo motors.
 19. The lamination apparatus of claim 18, wherein theplurality of orthogonal servo motors comprises three orthogonal servomotors.
 20. The lamination apparatus of claim 1, wherein the lower presshas a low vertical profile.